"The Vampire Diaries"was honored for the second time at PaleyFest this weekend, and before the festivities began,
Zap2itcaught up with our buddy
Ian Somerhalder to talk about what's to come for Damon -- and, more specifically, for Damon and Elena.

In tonight's new episode, we'll flash back to 1912 and meet Sage, a 900-ish-year-old vampire who was... ahead of her time. It doesn't take much effort on her part to get Damon to embrace his vampire side, instead of wallowing in it. "Lexi is to Stefan what Sage is to Damon," Somerhalder tells us. "I think it's important. I think it's important to see, I think it's important to understand how they came to be. It's like the anatomy of a man."

Not
that anatomy, pervs. (We'll get some of that
next week.) He's talking about the glimpse we'll get into Stefan's and Damon's past. We'll see the hand Damon had in Stefan's descent into Ripperville, which, given the fact that Stefan urged Damon to "turn" in the first place, provides an interesting parallel.

"Sage is a badass," Somerhalder confirms. "Cassidy Freeman who plays Sage is a friend of mine and she's amazing." Damon is reminded of her just when he needs a distraction from some of his angst. When she later returns to Mystic Falls, her relationship with Damon will get... well, anatomical. But even the vixen who had such a profound influence on him a century ago won't be able to erase Elena from his mind. Damon may be fulfilling his urges with Sage, but he'll still have moments of pining for Elena.

His true focus, though, has turned toward his brother. We think that the upcoming episodes paint Damon in an incredibly favorable light, particularly as he tries to be the older brother that Stefan badly needs.

"I think there's some very interesting stuff for Damon and Elena," Somerhalder tells us. "What a f***ed up situation. You're in love with the same chick that your brother's in love with, squared... and that's, while inherently being a very uncomfortable situation, it's also important, because as many times as they could've killed each other over these women... they haven't."

Executive producer
Julie Plec tells us that we can expect Stefan and Damon's relationship to continue to grow stronger, despite what's coming up with Elena. "They're brothers. They love and loathe each other in equal measure," she says. "Right now, I really like this idea that in spite of the fact that both of them have feelings for the same girl, they have found a way to set that aside and to be heroic for each other. Tonight's episode is
such a moment between them, where we really see how much Damon cares about his brother and how much Stefan
needs to be cared for by Damon."

Somerhalder can't wait for fans to see what's in store for the brothers as the season winds toward its conclusion. "I just talked to [producer Pascal Verschooris] last night, because we just got episode 21, which is episode 65... and I just learned about what the finale is. It's really dynamic, man. There's so much stuff happening."

When we asked him if the finale would make us cry: "Yes," he said bluntly.